I Have Type A Personality, and I’m Proud of It

I'm sorry that I messed up your book title, Foucault, but doesn't that sound much better with matching numbers of syllables?

According to today’s Wikipedia page, Type A personality means “ambitious, rigidly organized…impatient, take on more than they can handle… obsessed with time management…hate both delays and ambivalence.”

I think a more vernacular and succinct definition is “over-achieving control freak.”

All my life people have been telling me I “care too much,” “take everything too seriously,” and “need to relax.” I don’t really resent it because I don’t think that’s negative at all (and I’ll relax once the issue is resolved, duh!). Why do anything if I am not going to put 100% into it? Why do anything that I care little about? It doesn’t make sense to me.

Trust me, I don’t like worrying about the future either but I do it because I am actively trying to steer its course towards the way I want it. I make lists so I am less likely to forget anything. I keep an agenda so I can plan days and weeks in advance. The whole point of planning ahead to me is that appointments, reservations, and social engagements will work out without wasting anyone’s time and effort.

It’s not that I don’t like spontaneity. If someone says “keep next Friday night open because I’m surprising you with something,” I’m totally up for that! What I dislike is when someone refuses to make a commitment with wishy-washy language, because then they occupy an available slot that could be booked for something else with more certainty.

The other day I was talking to one of my best guy friends, Will. He’s a few years older than me and likes to think of himself as a real-life Ryan Gosling, so naturally I like to ask him for advice on what to text cute guys back, and then not listen to him most of time.

Of course, I went against his council again and he said “The way I see it, you got two ways you can go: You can try to fight your Type A, play the game, and try to get a dude that way. Or, just be you and at some point you will meet a super compatible dude who loves how forward and plan-tastic you are…That second route is probably better in the long run, just might take more time.”

Cue huge relief of heavy sigh here. It is so refreshing to hear the opposite of “You’re too _____ and need to change” finally. At this point in my life, it is too late for me to mold myself in a way that I do NOT like. Don’t get me wrong- I love to better myself and aim for improvement all the time, but if I don’t want to see myself going in a particular direction, then why should I?

My unofficial personal motto is “All or Nothing.” And I am sticking to it. My blood type is even Type A, btw. What a coincidence, right?

Take it or leave it,

Chin

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2 responses

Wow! You talk an awful lot of sense, Chin. I have no patience with “maybe we’ll do something next Friday-ish” types. If someone wants to keep me on the backburner, then I’d prefer to hang out with someone else who gets my unique fascinatingness just as much as I totally get theirs. And I’m glad to tell that individual so, using either exactly those words or other, less ambiguous ones if they occur to me once ny interlocutor’s sentence ending in “…ish” has come to its end.

I don’t get -and I’m hoping I’ll never get what’s “wrong” with being Type A. Sure, sponteneity’s lovely: let’s leave some space for that kind of fun. But make NO firm plans and just let life “happen” to you? That’s psychotic. Life is going to happen to us regardless, whether we like it or not; any effort we make to manage our lives a little bit, here and there, can only possibly enhance our chances of achieving something worthwhile between now and the unfortunate, inevitable moment when an unnoticed bus comes hurtling round the corner with our name on it. …Right, Chin?